Thursday, December 13, 2012

Hypocrisy Alert: McCain and Graham on Susan Rice

Susan Rice has submitted a letter withdrawing as a candidate to replace Hillary Clinton. John McCain"wishes her well" after months of character assassination, and Lindsey Graham who always seems ready to stoop to a new low to appease the Jim DeMint Republican Party of South Carolina "respects her decision". The most that can be said against Susan Rice - from the right - is that she was a good soldier and stuck to the talking points the National Security Director gave the Ambassador on the Benghazi attacks. There is a lot that could properly be asked by Congress on that - starting with the outsourcing of Embassy Security, and the chaotic state of Libya which triumphalism induced the Administration to downplay. But none of that rises to the level of denying the President a reasonable amount of discretion in choosing his Secretary of State. She wasn't high on my list (start with her and her husband's personal investments in Canadian Tar Sands) and her hawkish past. But on balance the affair is another sign that things are even worse than it looks that the President is not given a reasonably free hand in choosing his most important cabinet secretary.